the mobile detection assessment response system

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Abstract
(MDARS) is a joint Army-Navy effort to field interior and exterior autonomous platforms for security and inventory assessment functions at DoD warehouses and storage sites. Based on a Cybermotion K2A Navmaster platform designed for singular operation in structured office environments, the MDARS Interior platform has incorporated additional collision avoidance, intruder detection and inventory assessment systems under a Multiple Robot Host Architecture (MRHA). The MRHA is a distributed multiprocessing system that provides coordinated control of multiple autonomous vehicles from a single host console. The increased functionality of the base platform required the addition of sensor equipment and accompanying distributed processing. The MDARS Interior platform has successfully demonstrated sustained autonomous navigation within a semi-structured warehouse environment (with few walls and within which odd-shaped objects move about unpredictably) usinga combination of path anomaly sensor recognition and path adaptation analysis algorithms. The interior platform has established the ability to recognize intruders using passive infrared heat and microwave motion detection sensors, and to respond in kind



Background
he MDARS program is managed by the US Army Physical Security Equipment Management Office (PSEMO), Ft. Belvoir, VA, with the Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center (NCCOSC) providing all technical direction and systems integration functions. The MDARS Interior development effort (MDARS-I) is specifically targeted to warehouse interiors, with the Exterior effort (MDARS-E) addressing outdoor storage areas.

MDARS-I
The MDARS program was initiated via the Interior effort in 1989 under the auspices of improving the effectiveness of a shrinking security guard force and significantly reducing the intensive manpower requirements associated with accounting for critical and high-dollar assets [Everett, 1995].



MDARS-E
The collision avoidance problem for the MDARS Exterior program is much more complex than for the interior application, even in relatively structured scenarios. The collision avoidance strategy therefore incorporates a two-tier layered approach, wherein long-range (i.e., 0-100 feet) low-resolution sensors provide broad first-alert obstacle-detection coverage, and shorter range (i.e., 0-30 feet) higher-resolution sensors are invoked for more precise obstacle avoidance maneuvering.